Report sees $170 billion gap in roadway funds

Updated 1:46 am, Friday, April 1, 2011

AUSTIN — Transportation funding in Texas is “unacceptable” and will increase traffic congestion and highway maintenance costs if not corrected, according to an updated report commissioned to investigate the long-term transportation infrastructure needs of the state.

The report released Thursday by the 2030 Committee projects a $170 billion gap between the amount of money that needs to be invested in transportation to keep commutes from getting worse and the amount of money the state expects to bring in from federal freeway funds, the gasoline tax and vehicle registration fees between 2011 and 2035.

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“I grew up in Texas, and we always knew that we had an interstate that was beautiful and free,” said David Marcus, vice chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission-created committee. “Now we've got a different world. Texas can't pay for this anymore.”

The combination of aging infrastructure, which is more expensive to repair; booming population; and decreasing revenue from the gas tax has created a “perfect storm for our transportation spending,” said C. Michael Walton, the committee chairman.

“The majority of Texas roadways were built more than 40 years ago and are reaching the end of their designed life,” said Walton, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

The 2030 Committee was created in 2008 and charged with determining how much the state would have to invest in its transportation infrastructure to keep up with population growth.

The committee's report looked at several different funding possibilities for the state's transportation infrastructure, from doing nothing to increasing fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees sufficiently to close the gap.

The last time the Legislature increased the state's gas tax was in 1991.

The committee found that if the state did not act to increase funding for transportation programs, road conditions in the state would significantly deteriorate — with nearly every state road being in fair, poor or very poor condition. Only 13 percent of state roads were in poor enough condition this year to receive those ratings.

The report warns that allowing roads to deteriorate will make repairing them in the future much more expensive.

“The consequences of allowing your system to become poorly maintained are severe,” said Roger Nober, a committee member and BNSF Railway Co. executive.

Congestion in major urban areas would significantly increase, as well. According to the authors, the average Texas motorist spends an extra 37 hours a year on the road because of traffic. Without increasing funding for transportation, that would grow to 130 hours every year by 2035.

A previous report by the 2030 Committee, which looked at how much Texas would have to spend from 2009 to 2030 to keep traffic from getting worse, found a similar $160 billion gap between the state's needs and the amount of revenue expected.